


Love, Then and Now

by MegaWallflower



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Genre: Flirting, Introspection, M/M, Nostalgia, Not Beta Read, Photography, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-19 02:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22003525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaWallflower/pseuds/MegaWallflower
Summary: Houki asks Sukea about Kakashi’s first love.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Taketori Houki, Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy, Kokubou Renga/Kuroi Hako (mentioned), Maito Gai | Might Guy/Sukea, Metal Lee & Taketori Houki (mentioned), Sukea & Taketori Houki
Comments: 16
Kudos: 186
Collections: KakaGai Week 2019 entries





	Love, Then and Now

The rooftop of the hokage estate was the best place for quiet reflection in the village.

Sukea lounged against the rail and took in the view of the ever-evolving village. Guy had said it best before: there was no place quite like their village. And maybe it was growing and changing for the better. Kakashi knew better than anyone that it had a lot of growing to do to have merits besides the nostalgia of being where Kakashi met his loved ones.

It was filled with new things now. It looked different than it did before. But its roots would never change. The dreams of their ancestors, and all his memories here with his friends, his team, with Guy... they would never fade. They would always be here, in some form.

From the lookout up here, he could see Amaguriama, Kurenai’s sweet shop of choice. There had never been much there for Kakashi’s taste, but it had always been fun strolling through Konoha Tea Avenue to tease Asuma and Kurenai about their not-a-date while they sat outside eating rice cakes together. It was bigger now, fancier, and Kurenai insisted their selection of sweets had gotten even better anytime she invited Kakashi and Guy to tag along with her.

And there was Yakiniku Q. It used to be Asuma’s favorite, before he announced that taking Choji there was going to leave him bankrupt. He was still a regular up to the end, though. It was Choji’s favorite, after all. Despite his occasional complaints, Asuma had really loved all of his students.

And that was the old dango shop. Even that had a larger, fancier building now, but Kakashi still remembered all the missed opportunities when Guy invited him to join him there for a meal and a chat. Kakashi was making up for that lost time now. The village had changed, and so had he.

In the distance, Sukea could even spot the memorial from here, if he tried.

Sukea didn’t stare at the collection of gravestones and engraved tablets there. Instead, he glanced up at the sky and smiled. Obito had better be making the most of the time he was getting to spend alone with Rin now. And Sakumo better be enjoying his reunion with Kakashi’s mother.

Slowly, he brought his camera up to his face and angled it to capture as much of the scenery of the village as he could in a single picture, adjusting the focus for a panoramic shot. After he was done tinkering, he waited until the clouds had moved away from the late afternoon sun before taking a snapshot of his home town.

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

“—Ah!” An eager voice piped up from behind him. “Hey, I know you! Sukea!”

“Hm?” Sukea perked his eyebrow upwards and glanced back.

A short boy in a baggy blue jacket, a face mask, and a needlessly tilted headband that honestly gave Kakashi second-hand embarrassment from the flashbacks it evoked. The kid tried to pretend he didn’t have to catch his breath from running all the way up the stairs to get here. “Sukea! Hi!”

“Oh, if it isn’t Houki again.” Sukea aimed his camera at the small masked shinobi, finger hovering above the shutter button. “—Say cheese.”

With a quick jolt, Houki grounded his feet and moved into a squat. He brandished a kunai in his right hand, and her other hand was held out at his side, in imitation of a pose he’d seen Kakashi do before, in photographs or maybe during their graduation exam.

Houki was a bright, excitable boy who loved the camera. A cute kid, really. He’d learned to get along with Sukea in no time, which was good, since he tended to just freeze up or act nervous around Kakashi.

After he heard the camera click, Houki sprung back up into a standing position, grinning bashfully and ruffling up his own hair. “How did it turn out?”

Sukea nodded. “You have a good smile.”

“I do? I mean –I do! Right? I do, don’t I?” Houki puffed his chest out in a childish, bashful pride. The words slowly sunk in, and Sukea could practically read Houki’s mind as the realization hit. “—Hey, wait a second…! What—” Houki patted his face to make sure his mask was still firmly in place. He was suddenly overcome with embarrassment, blushing all the way to his ears. “Hey! What does that mean?! You can’t even see my smile!”

And he was right, he couldn’t—although Sukea could clearly see when Houki pursed his lips and pouted indignantly at that. A bout of laughter escaped Sukea’s lips; what an adorable kid.

“Sukea!” Houki stomped his foot, demanding attention, and Sukea straightened back up and let his laughter peter out.

“Anyway!” Houki cleared his throat and tried to be cool and controlled and less like a petulant child. He folded his arms and made an expression that he probably thought of as Kakashi-like. “Maa… Do you have some time? I have a question I wasn’t really sure who to ask.”

Sukea offered a cheeky smile and teased, “Something about Kakashi again?”

“No, it’s not that.” Sukea fixed the young boy with a dubious expression, and Houki furrowed his brows and glanced off into the distance. “Uh, well, not… directly? Not necessarily?” He tried instead, which was a little more honest, at least.

Sukea’s expression softened. “I’m all ears. Ask away, Houki.”

Houki perked up, turning back towards Sukea with sparkling eyes. “Thanks! It’s just… something I was too embarrassed to ask anyone else about.” Houki giggled nervously and scratched the back of his head. “You’re going to think it’s weird. It’s… a bit personal. But you seem like you know your stuff, so… I mean, I can’t really talk to my parents about this, they’d probably get too… you know? Actually, I dunno. Uh…”

He noticed the way Houki anxiously fidgeted and tripped over his words. His ears burned red in timidity.

And suddenly, Sukea wanted to backtrack.

With every word, a heavier sense of dread settled over Sukea’s shoulders. This was sounding more and more like it was going to be a puberty question, or something to that effect –Kakashi hadn’t even had “the talk” with his own father. Minato trying to clumsily have that talk with Kakashi had been pure torture for the both of them. Sukea wasn’t even about to try. He had no intention of traumatizing a whole new generation. “—Um, I… Look, Houki, I’m glad you feel comfortable talking to me and all, but I’m not really an expert in anything except journalism, if I’m being honest… I travel a lot, so I haven’t settled down, I don’t actually have any experience with kids, so—”

“—Have you ever been in love before?” Houki blurted out.

Sukea blinked, stunned to awkward silence.

“Ah! I mean—I mean I’m sorry!” A deep blush colored what was visible of Houki’s face. “I know it’s a weird question, coming from me!”

“Love? That’s all you needed to ask about?”

Houki nodded. “Yeah. I was curious.”

It didn’t sound like the full story, but Sukea was just happy this wasn’t an uncomfortable puberty talk after all. He turned away and hummed to himself. He had to consider how he’d go about answering a question like that. It’d be a lie if he said “no,” but things would get complicated quickly if he tried to weave too complex a story for someone who didn’t exist, like Sukea. “I guess I’ve been in love before. I can’t really give any advice about it, though. They were the best the world has to offer, but now he’s gone off and gotten married to the person he loved. You probably don’t want to hear about the one that got away, do you?”

“…No. That sounds depressing,” Houki agreed bluntly. “Okay, then, what sort of person was Lord Sixth’s first love?”

“Aha!” Sukea chuckled, “So, in the end it all comes back to Kakashi, huh?”

“Well… Sort of. But only because you were no help. No offense. –But it’s fine, because who doesn’t love talking about Lord Sixth? He’s the coolest!”

Sukea just shrugged and arched an eyebrow in a way that silently said, _Fair enough._

“It’s just that everyone seems to be talking about love, lately! My teammates even confessed to each other the other day! Well, kind of. It’s more like, Hako noticed that Renga had feelings for her apparently, so she just said, out of nowhere, ‘Ah, Renga, so the feelings are mutual…’” Houki shuddered. “I know her intuition is good, but sometimes, it’s almost like she’s a mind reader… If I ever fall in love with anybody, she’ll figure it out right away… Well, that’s if I ever do fall in love, in the first place…”

Houki sighed and turned to look into Sukea’s eyes, but he found them closed, the journalist’s head lolling to one side while an amused smile spread across his face.

“Puppy love, huh? Kids move fast these days.” Hopefully, it was nothing that would spiral into a war or homicide attempts. A memory itched at the back of his mind, of young crushes and twice-shy, blushing kids, dancing around compliments and puppy love. Hako smiling and glancing at Renga like he was the strongest man in the world, and Renga standing stiffly and turning bright red, like he forgot how to talk whenever she had a kind word for him.

It reminded him of Obito and Rin, of Kurenai and Asuma.

It was a bittersweet nostalgia. “Less time for regret that way, I guess…” A troubling thought crossed his mind, and he tried to sound like he was only kidding when he added, “There aren’t any love triangles weighing you down, are there?”

Houki shook his head, and Sukea breathed a silent sigh of relief. His teammates were happy together, and there were no messy unrequited feelings left over. Maybe this generation really would be the one to hold onto peace.

“Now they’re dating and…” Houki continued, “And it always seems like I’m the last to do these big milestones! I don’t want to fall behind everyone else! Especially not my own teammates! I’m happy that they’re happy and all, but also… I guess, I was just wondering what sort of person Kakashi’s first love was! Maybe it’ll help me get an idea of who I should fall in love with, too!”

Sukea laughed good-naturedly. “You know, love isn’t something you have to rush into head first. You shouldn’t really try to force it.”

“I still think it would help to hear about how Kakashi did it!” Houki argued, and that curious look in his eyes was enough to tell Sukea that he wouldn’t be easily assuaged. He was fully in Kakashi-fanboy mode now. He had to admit, it was flattering. Sweet, even.

“Well… It’s a bit of a secret, but…” Sukea reluctantly put his camera away into its bag before turning back towards the edge of the roof’s precipice. Houki followed curiously, grabbing onto the handrails and looking over the top of them. Before Houki even had the chance to appreciate the breathtaking view that stretched out before them, Sukea directed his gaze to a single point in the distance: the ninja academy. “It was someone he met back in his academy days. No, a little before he entered the academy, actually, but he didn’t learn his name until the first day of classes, right there, in front of the gates. Took a while for him to actually fall in love, though. Kakashi was a late bloomer in that area, too.”

“But who was it? You still haven’t said what the name was!” Houki squeaked insistently. He peered up at Sukea with that honest, full-eyed stare, and his adorable pout and sky-blue eyes were deadly serious– or, as deadly and as serious as he was capable of being.

“Hm…” Sukea pretended to think it over. It’d be easy to tell him a lie or just say he didn’t know the specifics, if he wanted to. If he was younger, he would have. He’d brush it off with an easy, _Kakashi’s a mysterious man, I wouldn’t know something that personal about him. I still haven’t even managed to unmask him, and I’ve been trying to for years!_ But since he was older and wiser and a little more sentimental now, he admitted, “…Oh, I remember now. Kakashi’s first love was Might Guy.”

“—Really? His Rival?” Houki asked with a quiet gasp of surprise.

With a playful wink and a finger to his lips, Sukea whispered, “Keep that a secret from him, okay?”

Houki’s expression flattened in confusion. “Um… From Lord Sixth or from Guy?”

“From both of them. I can’t have them hunting me down.”

“I won’t tell them, but…” He looked disappointed. Half his face was covered, but Kakashi was well-versed in reading expressions through just a single eye. It helped that Houki was very expression, despite the Kakashi getup he wore. “I guess I thought it would be someone cooler.”

Sukea laughed again, feeling a sympathetic pang of embarrassment for Guy. “Guy’s not cool?”

“Not as cool as Lord Sixth, that’s for sure.”

“I don’t know if I agree with you there.” Sukea continued with an easy shrug. “Well, Kakashi and Guy met when they were kids at the academy. Until then, Kakashi had been completely wrapped up in training to be a shinobi. It took him a long time to really think about feelings like love. But then, Guy kept challenging him to losing fights over and over again, and he kept inviting Kakashi to be his rival, even though Kakashi knew next to nothing about him. No matter how many times he knocked him down, Guy kept getting back up, bruised and bloodied and smiling, acting like that made him Kakashi’s equal.”

Houki’s head tilted, just a little. “That… doesn’t sound very normal.”

“That’s right. It really isn’t,” Sukea’s expression and voice softened in lovesick affection. In the most enamored tone that he was capable of speaking in, he practically swooned involuntarily, “Guy isn’t normal at all. He never has been. He never did what anyone expected him to do. No one could fully understand what was going on in his head, least of all the elite genius prodigy Kakashi. When it seemed like all he wanted was to picked fights, Guy would suddenly turn around and do something unbearably sweet, like defend Kakashi’s father, or bring him a handmade lunch, or drag him to a festival, or throw him a party, or just somehow make him laugh. And even when Kakashi lost his way, Guy was always there to reach out to him, take him by the hand, and keep him on the right path. He worked so hard, put in so much effort to grow side-by-side to Kakashi. Before Kakashi knew it, they really were equals in every way that matter. Guy had bathed Kakashi in so much light that it was nearly blindly. It’s not even that he became the light in Kakashi’s life; he just reminded Kakashi that he had a light of his own. I still don’t know how he managed that.”

Houki leaned against Sukea’s side, listening attentively to his voice weaving some fantastical yarn about a long, long life, of ups and downs, of rivalries and comraderies. Sukea’s hand dipped down to ruffle the genin’s crazy brown hair in a caring way, earning another giggle out of him.

“Kakashi doesn’t even know how many times Guy’s saved him with his strength and his smile. In the end, there are some things Kakashi could save, and some things he couldn’t. Guy wasn’t either of those things. Guy was just something that Kakashi couldn’t lose. Something he wasn’t going to lose. And somewhere along the way, after he got too comfortable around Guy, laughed too much with Guy, and showed too much of himself to Guy, he realized that he had something really precious. He hadn’t even realized it until it was too late. He was already in love. Maybe he always had been.”

Houki’s face scrunched in thought. “That sounds like a lot… I didn’t know crushes were that serious.” He leaned further into the cloth of Sukea’s comfortable coat. “I wonder why Renga and Hako like each other. They haven’t been alive long enough to go through something like that.”

Sukea wouldn’t mention that a lot of that happened while he was still a teenager or a child. It was a good sign, that Houki couldn’t fathom things like that happening to a child younger than him. Another benefit of the age of peace. “Well, most people don’t have as dramatic love stories as that. Sometimes, you just have two people who really, really like each other and want to be together.”

Houki let the words sink in slowly. “I guess Lord Sixth wouldn’t settle for normal or boring, even when it comes to crushes.” Houki’s eyes sparkled in realization, and he pulled away from Sukea to excitedly bounce in place. “When you think of it that way, isn’t it even cooler? Just what I’d expect from Lord Sixth! Even his love story is legendary! He really is the coolest! He’s so, so amazing! I should’ve known that everything else about him is amazing, too!”

Caught by surprise with the sudden outburst, Sukea spluttered into laughter. “You could give Guy a run for his money with all that passion. I’m flattered, though! It’s hard to complain with so much praise.”

“Uh, um…” Houki’s eyes darted away awkwardly, a sympathetic grimace under his mask. “Sukea, I really don’t want to be mean, but, again, I’m talking about Lord Sixth, not you…”

“—Oh yeah,” Sukea shook his head. He was more prone to that mistake these days. He was so lucky no one had really caught him from it yet. “Right. My mistake, forget I said anything.” Sukea cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject, “I can’t really blame Kakashi. Guy’s pretty cool in his own right. I don’t think anyone else could do what he did. No one else stuck around as long as he did for Kakashi. It would be harder not to fall in love with him after all that.”

Houki was happy to go along with the change of subject. He was probably slowly coming to think of Sukea as a little bit ditzy. “So, his first love was his rival, huh…”

A nod. “He’s quite a rival to have.”

“I have a rival, too!” Houki bragged suddenly.

“Oh? You do?” Sukea feigned surprise, even though Metal had already told Kakashi about it. “Did that old story make you think of him?”

“Not really! But it made me remember that I have a rival, too! Just like Lord Sixth did! So maybe my rival’s going to be my first love, too!”

“Ah—No, I don’t think that’s the moral of th—”

It was too late to reason with Houki. He was already prepping to sprint. “I’m going to go tell Metal now! We have to start planning our love story! Thanks again, Sukea! See you again sometime!”

Houki gave a cheery wave, and then he was off, kicking up the dust behind him.

Sukea could only smile lopsidedly. Hopefully Metal would forgive him for accidentally stirring up trouble. Hopefully Metal wouldn’t just have a heart attack and faint on the spot. Houki wasn’t the most subtle kid in the world.

He sighed and leaned against the rails again. Metal was a strong kid, he could handle Houki. It’d be fine. Probably.

After a minute or so of silence, when Houki was far out of earshot, “…So, how long are you planning to stay hidden back there?” Sukea called.

Sukea didn’t have to look back. The tell-tale sound of quiet wheels guiltily rolling over the pavement announced the eavesdropper’s presence well enough. “Did you have fun spying on us, Guy?” Sukea turned to face him, offering a toothy grin.

Guy bit his lip, blinking rapidly as fat, happy tears caught in his lashes, trickled down his cheeks. “Ka—Sukea…! I…” He’d definitely heard the entire thing if he was that choked up. He tried to sound unaffected, arguing an indignant, “I—I wasn’t spying! I just happened stop by here! I wasn’t listening in on you at all!”

Guy was good at hiding many of his emotions. Joy was not one of them.

“It’s fine if you were.” Sukea pushed off from the rail and closed the distance between himself and Guy in a few steps. “That’s what we do, right? Shinobi, reporters, they’re pretty similar jobs if you think about it. Just be a little sneakier about it, depending on who you’re spying on, hm? You might get yourself into trouble if you tried to pull that with, say, the sixth hokage.”

Guy wiped his tears off on his sleeve and gave Sukea a thumbs up. “Hah! You don’t have to worry about me! I’m a shinobi too! When I need to be, I can be very stealthy!”

He smiled at Guy’s signature Nice Guy Pose. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Guy?” He said it airily, but once he heard the words himself, the truth of them hit him like a thunder rail. Would the snotty little kid in front of the ninja academy ever have expected the two of them to end up like this? All those years and years he’d just finished recounting… “It’s been a while…”

Sukea’s gaze fell entrancedly to the curve of Guy’s lips. They parted in a smile, “I’m always around! You can see me anytime you want, _Sukea_!” A ridiculous wink and a nudge to go with the exaggerated I-know-a-secret way he said Sukea’s name. Sukea laughed again. It was charming. Cute.

He rested his hands on the sides of Guy’s wheelchair and leaned his weight against it. The wheels creaked, the chair shifted at his back, there was the slight whine of smooth palms against metal bars. Sukea’s thumb just barely brushed against Guy’s thigh, and he swore he could feel how Guy thrummed with life.

Guy fixed his gaze on Sukea’s, and they stared at each other, barely inches apart, shadowed. “You’ve been working out.”

_I love him_ , Sukea thought belatedly, as he watched the grin on Guy’s face fill with pride. “I have! I’d never slack on my rehab! Or my exercise!” Guy boasted.

“I can tell.” The feeling in his chest was heady, steeped in the clever lies he’d built Sukea out of, and if Sukea leaned a little too close to Guy, it couldn’t be his fault, if his hand trembled when he seized the opportunity to touch Guy again— an open hand sluggishly crawling over his muscled thigh, and tangling the fabric of Guy’s jumpsuit— he’d surely think nothing of it. “I should write another report on you. You feel like you’ve gotten stronger than before. Feel like giving me an exclusive interview with the legendary blue beast again?”

Suddenly remembering himself, Guy leaned back away from Sukea and cleared his throat with a faint blush on his cheeks, eyes averting from Sukea’s with childlike caution. To his chagrin, Sukea followed him, leaning until he lightly braced a hand next to Guy’s hip against the chair. “I’m a married man,” Guy reminded him.

“I know…” Sukea replied, but it was all breath, and he was already leaning in closer.

Maddeningly, Guy stopped Sukea himself this time, raising a hand to cover his mouth. “No, it doesn’t seem like you do.”

Sukea pulled back just enough to look him properly in the eyes. Guy wasn’t angry or annoyed. He wasn’t aroused, either. His gaze was knowing, though— and strangely, softly, adoring. Honestly, Guy took the Sukea thing more seriously than Kakashi did. If they were at home, Sukea would simply pull off the wig and get on with it, but for now, he relented, pulling away and straightening back up with a defeated sigh.

“Guess I can’t really compete with a former kage like Kakashi. I’m too out of practice… I can’t be blamed for looking, though. It’s pretty selfish to keep someone like you all to himself.” Sukea pulled his scarf up past the bridge of his nose like a mask, and winked his left eye playfully. In Kakashi’s voice, he teased, “But this is more your type, right? The closed off, edgy men. You have weird tastes, Guy.”

“I think I have the best taste in the village! I’ll have you know my husband is the coolest, most amazing man in the world!” Guy winked back, and Sukea rolled his eyes.

“You and Houki would get along great…” He muttered with a chuckle. “Well, if Kakashi ever doesn’t treat you right, or you get bored of him,” Sukea reached down to cup Guy’s face, affectionately brushing his thumb over his cheek. “You’ll keep me in your thoughts, right?”

Guy covered Sukea’s hand with his own and scoffed in reply with a shake of his head, even as he nuzzled into Sukea’s touch. “I can’t imagine ever falling out of love with Kakashi. He’s my first love, you know!”

“That’s alright. I’m a patient man.”


End file.
